hugh laurie

Last week, we kind of bummed you all out with the news that Hugh Laurie would not be part of Jose Padilha‘s RoboCop reboot. We know it sucks, as Hugh would have been a really kick ass villain, but this week MGM and Sony pulled an ace out of their sleeves.

In an announcement via Deadline, Michael Keaton has stepped up and will replace Laurie as Raymond Sellars, the evil and ultra-rich CEO of Omnicorp. Yes, mother f-ing Batman is going to be in a Robocop movie and it’s already making this film that much more awesome. Honestly, having a Batman instead of a doctor is a great move for the studio and should be accepted with open arms by the fans.

Michael will join Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson, Jackie Earle Haley, Jay Baruchel, Jennifer Ehle, Michael Kenneth Williams and Marianne Jean-Baptiste when shooting begins in the near future. As for how Keaton will play the villain remains to be seen, but we kind of hope it’s like Ken in Toy Story 3.

“In RoboCop, the year is 2029 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center of robot technology. Their drones are winning American wars around the globe and now they want to bring this technology to the home front. Alex Murphy is a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit. After he is critically injured in the line of duty, OmniCorp utilizes their remarkable science of robotics to save Alex�s life. He returns to the streets of his beloved city with amazing new abilities, but with issues a regular man has never had to face before.”

When Hugh Laurie not so silently left the production of the new RoboCop last week, many of us had to wonder if this wasn’t a sign that something was rotten in the state of future Detroit.

Then there’s this: Fernando Mereilles, director of City of God and a friend of RoboCop director José Padilha, was promoting his latest film when, during an interview with a Portuguese news site, and he let it slip that Padilha is maybe not having such a great time on the film. Warning, the following was put through Google Translation, so it might not be Mereilles words exactly:

“I talked to José Padilha for a week by phone,” Mereilles said. “He will begin filming RoboCop. He is saying that it is the worst experience. For every 10 ideas he has, 9 are cut. Whatever he wants, he has to fight. ‘This is hell here,’ he told me. ‘The film will be good, but I never suffered so much and do not want to do it again.’ He is bitter, but it’s a fighter. “

So given Mereilles proposed ratio of every nine out of ten ideas cut we can either assume that gold like RoboCop basically being a Transformer and the ED-209 being deployed in the Middle East are either two of the ones, or not really Padilha’s ideas to begin with. Now stress from the studio isn’t necessarily bad for a director, for instance George Lucas made the original Star Wars under extreme duress from the studio, but the question is can Padilha make lemonade out of these lemons? And did these negative vibes contribute to Laurie’s decision to jump ship?

Were you as excited as we were when it was announced that former House star Hugh Laurie was in negotiations to join the upcoming Robocopreboot directed by José Padilha? Yeah, well, better bottle up all those hopes and dreams because Laurie will not be joining the cast. Bummer!

Back in June, Variety reported that Laurie was in talks to play, “the cold, sarcastic CEO of Omni Corp, which creates the title character.” Many believed that meant he would be play senior president Dick Jones, head of the ED-209 enforcement droid program and villain of the original 1987 film.

According to Variety’s Jeff Sneider ( by way of Jeff’s Twitter account), though, Hugh has pulled out of negotiations:

Seeing Laurie in a big budget film in which he doesn’t voice the son of Santa, or the Easter Bunny would have been pretty awesome. And he totally would have played a deliciously dick-headish corporate CEO. However, seeing as Hugh was never officially confirmed, there’s no big loss to the cast or crew. Principle photography hasn’t even begun yet, so there’s still time to find someone else to put on the suit and boss people around.

Nobody asked for a Robocop reboot. Well, that isn’t true. Obviously, director José Padilha and the movie studio wanted it. I’m just saying us fans didn’t ask for it. The original 1987 classic by Paul Verhoeven was fine the way it was. Fucking reboots man, they just kick our favorite 80’s films right in the gooch.

Actually, I’ve slowly been coming around to this Robocop rehash. While I’m still very much in defense of the original, the more I hear about this new version, the more my ears peak. Primarily, it’s the casting that’s been getting my attention. Check out these names: Gary Oldman (The scientist who creates Robocop), Hugh Laurie (The CEO of of the insidious Omni Corp), Samuel L. Jackson (A charismatic TV mogul), Abbie Cornish (Robocop’s wife) and Joel Kinnaman (Robocop). Those are some head turning names, huh? But wait there’s more…

Jackie Earle Haley has just joined the (already) star-studded cast.

Deadline reports that Haley has been cast as Maddox, the character who gives Robocop his military training.

Haley is a very much nerd approved addition to the cast. He creeped us the fuck out as Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street reboot. He kicked ass as Rorschach in Watchmen. And he made us laugh as Johnny Depps man-puppet in Dark Shadows. Scary, serious, funny…he can do it all.

So… Haley, Kinnaman, Cornish, Jackson, Laurie and Oldman. I couldn’t ask for a better cast. Truly, with these dudes involved, my level of faith in this reboot has been restored.

Padilha’s Robocop will shoot in the next few months, and will hit theaters August 9, 2013. Here’s the synopsis of the film:

In RoboCop, the year is 2029 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center of robot technology. Their drones are winning American wars around the globe and now they want to bring this technology to the home front. Alex Murphy is a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit. After he is critically injured in the line of duty, OmniCorp utilizes their remarkable science of robotics to save Alex’s life. He returns to the streets of his beloved city with amazing new abilities, but with issues a regular man has never had to face before.

Director José Padilha (Elite Squad) reimagines the tale of part man, part machine, all cop starring Joel Kinnaman (The Killing) as the title character, Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight Rises) as the scientist who creates RoboCop, and Samuel L. Jackson (The Avengers) as media mogul Pat Novak. RoboCop is being produced by Strike Entertainment’s Marc Abraham and Eric Newman, with Eric Carraro as Executive Producer. The film is currently in pre-production and slated for a summer 2013 release.

This NerdBastard will always think of Blackadder when Hugh Laurie shows up. Laurie is just that good when it comes to comedy. Of course he’s pretty damn good at the serious stuff too, just watch a couple of House episodes.

The Internet Rumor Mill is spinning with word that Hugh Laurie is in talks to play the head villain in the upcoming Jose PadilhaRobocop reboot, the role of Omni Corp CEO. Laurie joins an already impressive cast that includes Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Abbie Cornish, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Robocop is the story of Detroit police officer Alex Murphy (Kinnaman), murdered while on duty and remade into an unstoppable cyborg of the law. Laurie’s character is described as the extremely wealthy head of Omni Corp, the company that creates Robocop for their own benefit.

Oldman is already locked down to play the scientist who creates Robocop, a new character to the Robocop franchise. Cornish signed on last week to play Alex Murphy’s wife, who initially believes him to be dead, while Jackson will play powerful TV mogul Pat Novak.

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